Project Mustang Part 3: Down and Dirty
Before power comes control, right? Itching to turn up the wick on the Mustang, Cowland’s done one last ‘sensible’ mod first… suspension.
Let’s address the elephant in the room shall we? The joke between friends at the car meet. The derisory videos on YouTube. ‘But, American cars don’t handle,’ say those who perhaps haven’t spent much time in one…
A wash before we start?
It was perhaps a fair criticism in the ‘70s and ‘80s – but for many years now, and particularly with the introduction of such European modernities like an independent rear set-up, cars like the Mustang have actually had a pretty decent platform on which to work. The car may be a little soft for really ‘press-on’ driving in standard trim, but as its ‘GT’ nomenclature states, it’s sold from the showroom floor as much more of a Grand Tourer. And, in that regard, it really is very good.
Soft, but supple, the PE Mustang suspension is great for GT work.
If throwing the thing around is much more your cup of tea though, you may want to invest a little in firming the job up down below – and adding a little adjustability into the mix. Last month I’d added the Steeda IRS kit over at Sandicliffe, the supplying dealer, so for this instalment, I felt the time was right to add the final piece of the handling jigsaw before I upped the power with the HP Tuners MPVI2 tool!
They take care of your motor at Litchfield! Anti-scratch wrap is neat!
Before I had even signed on the dotted line to buy the car, I already knew which coilover kit I was going to fit. I’ve chosen the BILSTEIN B16 coilover kit on so many cars that I own as it does exactly what you’d hope a road-kit from this most experienced of motorsport manufacturers would do. It’s fully adjustable for both ride height and damping rate, with both bump and rebound being tweaked together on a beautifully engineered positive-detent adjuster. The build quality of these kits is off the charts, too. On certain cars in my collection, I’ve had these parts on for over 10 years, and in every single case, they still work beautifully with both threaded and damper adjusters moving freely. They more cost a little more than Ebay specials, but if you truly care about performance, and you’re planning on spending a while with the car you’re fitting them to, they’re definitely worth that little bit more.
BILSTEIN B16 kit may not be cheap - but it is awesome value.
Great suspension can only realise its full potential when it’s fitted by a suitably skilled technician, so to ensure that the workshop talent matched the chosen hardware, I took a trip down south to see my old friend, and serial supercar tuner, Iain Litchfield. These days, Litchfield are perhaps best known for their 1200bhp GT-Rs, or their incredible array of tuned Porsches, BMWs and McLarens, but the lads are still happy to welcome a mere 450bhp Yank coupe, if you ask them nicely. You know you’re in the right place when your 6 month old Mustang is easily the cheapest car in the workshop, though!
A lot of amazing cars in this workshop!
As you might expect from a team that fettles racecars and exotica as their daily fayre, nothing on the Mustang phased them. Admittedly it was nice to have brand new, fresh bolts to spin out, but technician Chris soon had the old kit out, the old factory hardware swapped over and the new units set to base setting and swapped back in. In terms of both ride height and damper settings, we’ve gone somewhere in the middle for the initial set-up, to allow the springs to settle a little, as well as allowing me to get a few miles on the thing to see what changes we might need to make.
After getting everything torqued and checked, it was over to the alignment ramp to finally settle the heights, and then fine tune camber and toe. Naturally, the car had gained a little negative camber on its way down closer to the ground, so with a few minutes of careful spanner work, we had a perfect set of alignment figures to go with our rather peachy ride height.
Although the journey down to Litchfield’s had been pretty much motorway driving for the whole schlep, I decided to change tack on the way home and carve a route through some of the UK’s finest back and ‘B’ roads. As I did, the new kit made it very apparent that we’d done the right thing. The car communicates much more precisely now, and feels much tighter and communicative through the corners. It’s gone from being a GT into something more akin to a European sports coupe, in the style of, dare I say it, an M4! - It really is that good now. Best of all? It’s managed to achieve this new found cornering prowess without trashing the ride quality. Even set to halfway, it’s very compliant, and should I ever desire to waft along in magic-carpet comfort once again, I only need to wind those gorgeous adjusters back, anyway!
That's more like it! Mustang is a 'B' road weapon now
So, I’ve been good, I’ve got it looking good and ready to handle a little more power. Time to get some in there, I think! Until next time!
Stanced to perfection, now
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Comments (6)
Bring that thing to America someday and enjoy some of our great B roads
Would love to! Some incredible driving roads out there!
And risk getting shot by an ignorant cop?
Plates are different, it's RHD, funny accent...recipe for a tragedy!
I had a 2012 Mustang GT, and I upgraded the suspension at Steeda, which is local for me. It made a big difference. It was a really fun car after that.
It seems such a shame that Ford refuse to fit the Mustang with the suspension that it deserves out of the factory
In my 58 years on the planet, 42 of those as a licensed driver, I’m pretty sure that I have been pulled over more times than the average motorist. I have never been concerned with being shot by a police officer. Why? Simply because I choose to comply with their instructions. As a matter of fact I have been “felony stopped” by officers, when I was a teenager. Surrounded by 4 patrol cars and at least 5 officers with guns drawn and pointed at me. By simply complying with their commands the situation was sorted. While my Z-28 and I did fit the description of the armed robber and I was traveling at 20 to 30 miles over the speed limit, I didn’t even receive a ticket. Being a police officer is a dangerous job. Cut them some slack, comply with their commands and everyone gets to go home safely.